By Jon Moss, Elizabeth Doran, Douglass Dowty
syracuse.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Fire departments in Onondaga and Madison counties are preparing for the possibility that the local water system could run dry this weekend, officials said.
The system, operated by the Onondaga County Water Authority, brings water to residents, businesses and fire hydrants. A major water main break has caused a water shortage in six towns in eastern Onondaga County and western Madison County.
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Some Onondaga County fire chiefs met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the water troubles. They said the county is analyzing which fire hydrants have the best water pressure and which may not be usable.
Dan Wears, the emergency management commissioner in Onondaga County, said he is encouraging fire departments to rely on portable water tankers for their water needs.
Using tanker trucks to fight fires is common in rural parts of the county where hydrants are not installed.
“We are just encouraging them to take those same plans from the more rural areas of their district and to utilize them in the more suburban parts of their district,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
Wears said he is also encouraging fire departments to activate more tankers earlier when responding to a fire.
“If traditionally they could handle what they believe with four tankers in a rotation,” he said, “then they may add five, six, seven, eight — depending on what it is — so that they get those resources started sooner to have the available water on site for them.”
The water issues were caused by a rupture last weekend in Cicero in a massive concrete pipe. That pipe typically moves millions of gallons of water each day to 27,000 customer accounts in the towns of DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.
Officials have issued a mandatory conservation notice, telling customers to limit their non-essential water usage.
The areas most vulnerable to losing water are the southern part of the village of Manlius, the northern portion of the town of Pompey and parts of the village of Fayetteville. But users in the entire six-town area should still conserve water, officials said, to avoid more water shortages.
Paul Hildreth, the chief of the Fayetteville Fire Department, said his coverage area has 493 fire hydrants. As of Tuesday afternoon, he said he was still waiting for the county emergency management department to identify which hydrants firefighters should use.
Hildreth said the department’s tankers should be enough to put out a house fire.
“We have an extra tanker that we’re using on all reported fires, so we are in pretty good shape,” he said.
Hildreth said the department, which services the village of Fayetteville and parts of the town of Manlius, has eight people on duty around the clock. Hildreth has ordered a portable toilet and shower so firefighters can keep working at the fire station.
Paul Haynes, the chief of the East Syracuse Fire Department, said the department is keeping a water tanker on standby.
Haynes said that if more water is needed, firefighters may need to travel further than usual to refill the tanker.
Madison County is making similar arrangements as Onondaga County, officials there said.
The county also has tanker task forces and engine strike teams from the fire departments outside the affected areas that could be deployed if needed. These responses are organized by the county fire coordinators.
In the past day or so, OCWA has worked with the city of Oneida to get a steadier supply of water to the villages of Canastota and Chittenango.
Lyle Chafee, the chief of the Canastota Volunteer Department, said he’s been warned by county emergency management officials not to use the fire hydrants unless absolutely necessary.
Instead, Chafee said, three surrounding fire departments — Lincoln, Wampsville and North Bay — are prepared to bring water tankers into the village if there’s an active fire. Canastota has a water tanker of its own, too.
For now, Chafee said, he’s not going to plug into village fire hydrants at all because he doesn’t want to risk finding one that doesn’t have sufficient water.
Bringing in extra tanker trucks should be enough for a single house fire, he said. Anything more than that at once could be trouble.
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